Enrich Your Practice

Have a Little Fun!

No New Adverse Events Reported for DTaP Vaccination

Most frequently reported adverse events included injection site erythema and swelling, pyrexia.

HealthDay News — No new or unexpected safety issues have been identified in association with diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines in the United States, according to a study published online June 4 in Pediatrics.

Pedro L. Moro, MD, MPH, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues searched the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for US reports of DTaP vaccinations from January 1, 1991, through December 31, 2016. Medical records were reviewed for death reports, and a random sample of non-fatal serious reports.

Related Articles

The researchers found that 50,157 reports were received by VAERS after DTaP vaccination; 87.7% reported concomitant administration of other vaccines and 11.2% of reports were serious. Vaccination occurred at a median age of 19 months. Injection site erythema, pyrexia, injection site swelling, erythema, and injection site warmth were the most frequently reported events (25.3, 19.8, 15.0, 11.2, and 9.6%, respectively). Using Empirical Bayesian data mining, elevated values for vaccination errors were identified for 3 of the DTaP vaccines.

"The observed disproportionate reporting for some non-serious vaccination errors calls for better education of vaccine providers on the specific indications for each of the DTaP vaccines," the authors write.